Do You Use an Electronic or Paper To-Do List?
Even in this age of incredible task-management software, when it comes down to your concrete next action list (or daily next action list), there are still advantages to pen and paper. As I’ve blogged before, I use OmniFocus to keep track of my goals, projects, and actions. But when it comes down to the specific actions that I want to do today, sometimes I find a lot of value in pen and paper.
If you create to-do lists, what do you use — software or paper?
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20 Responses to “Do You Use an Electronic or Paper To-Do List?”
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About Matt Perman
Follower of Christ. Husband of one, father of three. Former director of strategy at Desiring God. This blog exists to help equip Christians in good works, because that's what productivity is really about.
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I generally use Toodledo on my phone, but often at work I write down a few next actions on a legal pad and cross them off when they’re complete. I find the paper to-do list often helps me to focus.
Both, but mainly paper.
For household tasks–cleaning, mowing, etc…whiteboard on wall.
For project management–Things for Mac.
for micro-tasks (mini assignments for myself that take 2-3 min.) i use a txt document that keeps getting changed throughout day.
This may not be best, but its how I’m working.
Paper – it’s not dependent on electricity or cranky operating systems.
I use “Things” on a Mac and iPhone for to do lists for work and home. With the iphone version and sync capability with the Mac, I’m never without my to do list. I do use paper lists but only as a temporary medium for taking to-do’s during a phone conversation – I always then transfer them to “Things”.
I have tried to use various software syncing with my windows mobile device for a while but have now gone with a gtd based Hipster PDA (thanks Merlin!) on templated printed notecards. This has worked the best for me as I am very mobile and I love how I can spread it all out in front of me.
I also use Toodledo. It is feature-full and almost 100% GTD compliant and it syncs with several different services, including at least three iPhone apps.
I have also used Remember the Milk in the past, but it would cost $25/year to get it synced with my iPhone, so I went with the uglier but more helpful Toodledo.
I currently use paper notes with a few electronic documents. I’ve almost finished reading Getting Things Done. Great book!
I’m now researching the best GTD software to use that also has a good iPhone app. Any thoughts here from the readers or from you Matt? It looks like OmniFocus or Things seem to be the best two.
I use rememberthemilk.com and a bit of paper when i’m away from the computer.
I like what David Allen said in his interview with Merlin Mann: if you can’t do both, you’re not going to succeed with either. It has to be situational. If you don’t have pen and paper, use your iPhone or computer what have you.
I use all types, but they all get parsed into Things once I’m in front of my computer or iPhone (I have them synced).
I use Omnifocus for the majority of my GTD practice (all the titles are sync’d to support folders with extensive project plans, notes, etc.)
But, since I’m on the go a lot and away from my Mac about 50% of the time, I jot down any next actions that I know I will able to do on 3X5 notecards (old-school . . . I know) . . .
Hopefully, all this will go away when I get an iPhone and the Omnifocus app . . .
I use both: i always have a notepad and pen by my side and i use a simple Word doc to bullet point projects that will last more than the day. I’m still looking for something better, though. I’m going to investigate some of the software mentioned above.
Right now I’m using a combination of Remember the Milk (mainly used through the iGoogle gadget) and am trying out Astrid to sync the list to my G1. But I often compose my lists on paper before entering them into the computer. I find it easier to make sure I don’t miss anything if I scribble them down on scratch paper first.
Similar to Matt, I use digital for task lists and projects, but I use a 3X5 card to jot down what I’m doing for the day or even the next two days. At least this is true for my personal family to do items. For work, since I work on the computer, everything stays on the computer.
For braindump and during phone calls, I use a ‘Cowbook’ as my kids call it. A composition book. I like this better than spiral or other medium simply because the pages don’t fall out easily.
For recurring tasks, I use Outlook tasks, as well as items that pop up during my daily or weekly productivity review.
I also try to then review the Cowbook regularly and transfer any open items to Outlook tasks
I use http://www.todoist.com for almost everything and paper occasionally e.g. when lying in bed, at the supermarket.
David: In response to your question on the best GTD software to use that also has a good iPhone app: OminFocus is my preference. I like Things, but it doesn’t provide enough functionality for me. The one drawback to the iPhone app for OF is that if you have a lot of information in there, it can take a while to open. But on the new 3G S that’s better, and OF is improving its performance on this front all the time.
Just wanted to say thanks to Mark for the heads up re. Todoist – it really seems to suit my needs and is very flexible. If only it had an iPhone app!
After reading this post it reminded me of how efficient I used to be with paper to-do lists. So I started again and I am already happy that I did so. I wrote a post about it on my blog – http://buddylee.org/blog/2009/07/organization-methods-at-work/. Feel free to remove the link if you don’t want it on your comments
I’m always open to something that could be more efficient, but for now it’s paper. A classic, yellow legal pad.
It doesn’t have much of a coolness factor, but it gets the job done. I don’t have to worry about it’s battery dying, unreliable internet service or discovering that something didn’t sync they way I intended, while working away from my desk.